November 10, 2025 – November 23, 2025

By Suzie Degrasse

Fall is in full swing and many animals have headed into hibernation or brumation. That doesn’t mean I get a break! It just gets quieter.

Mr. Pigeon healed and went home! His caretaker said he immediately puffed up his chest and started stomping around like he was a big deal.

When he arrived his foot was grotesquely swollen and the fracture had pierced the skin.

After weeks of medication, both topical and oral, and cage rest, you can barely tell which one was injured!

Calia spent weeks here getting bigger and learning how to be a Real Opossum.

It took a couple weeks to coordinate, but he has been released at his rescuer’s home, in a well insulated house. I had fun making it for him and hope the design works well.

Volunteers

Volunteer Ashley Kennedy has been so helpful this fall and even fixed this wheel base. I had given up on it ever working again, which was sad, because the base isn’t sold separately. But she fixed it!

A few of my volunteers have stayed on despite my being closed to intakes this year, which was great, because you know I wasn’t truly closed to intakes! Rich has helped and Ashley has created the soon-to-be-trademarked “Portable Forest”.

Once baby season starts up in March I will be needing volunteers again. If you are local and interested, send me an email!

Sarah loves shrimp and is always a happy girl.

Mr. Bat

Some finders of injured or orphaned animals go the extra mile. Sometimes literally.

Diane from Jasper found an injured bat at work and created this thoughtful container for him. It was lined with a soft towel, holes carefully cut for air, and a piece of fabric woven through for him to hang on. She also put a little dish of water in for him and fed him live mealworms with tweezers.

At no point did she directly interact with him. She wore gloves and used cardboard or a towel to transfer him. These actions kept both of them safe. If a bat or other rabies vector species have been handled with bare hands, regardless of whether that animal bit or even drooled on them, we are required to euthanize the animal.

Diane then drove him from Jasper (West Georgia) to Dawsonville where Georgia Wildlife Network volunteer transporter Sarah picked him up and drove him to Snellville (outside Atlanta). Volunteer transporter Jen drove over an hour to meet up with Sarah and then drove an hour to bring him to me (and then 45 minutes back home).

Georgia Wildlife Network has made a profound difference in my ability to care for animals by transporting them from far flung finders.

I have so much fun with enrichment! I filled this toy for dogs with sliced fruit and the boys had to figure out how to extricate them.

Brute force is always an option but did not yield results.

For this enrichment I stacked two used tires and filled them with straw. Different snacks are hidden in the straw and they have to dig down to find them. I add straw as they pack it down. Last night I noticed someone had dug a nice sleeping tunnel in the compressed area!

Winter is the season of injured adults and I have already received a few. Sadly, an opossum (or any animal) is no match for a car, even if it just seems like they were clipped and no blood is visible. Internal injuries and closed fractures often lead to a perfectly normal looking animal’s death. I am still glad that finders stop, get the animal to safety, and then find me. Sometimes the only help I can give is to assist them out of pain with euthanasia (performed at my vet’s, I am not authorized to do so).

The guiding principle behind my permit is to “rehab to release” and release comes in many ways. I am grateful for my caring and attentive vet, Dr. Allene Phillips of Madison Animal Hospital in Danielsville, without whom I would not be able to help the animals needing medical care.

Without a good relationship with a vet, a rehabber cannot do their job. Without her partnership, I would have to close my doors. I can never adequately express my gratitude.

Thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving!